Allentown Public Library: Why story of its founding includes bear meat, prairie chicken

Working with Frank Whelan back in his Morning Call days was a constant education for me.

Whelan, always more historian than journalist, used to do in-depth Sunday stories when I was the paper’s Sunday editor, and it was must reading for people who are interested in the area’s history.

I got a note the other from the Allentown Public Library about a presentation Whelan is doing at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18. It’s called “The Lady and the Library: Mary Lewis’s sometimes lonely struggle to get a public library in Allentown.” Lewis began her campaign in 1873 and continued for decades until her goal was achieved.

Knowing how much ground Whelan covered when he was working for the Call, I did a library search with his name, Mary Lewis and the library. Sure enough, he did a story 21 years ago about how Allentown came to have a public library, going back way before Lewis arrived on the scene to push it over the top.

I’ll share it below, but given the title, I’m thinking Whelan’s talk next week will zero in more on the role Lewis played.

He’s a great storyteller, in print or in person, so if you’re interested in Allentown history, this will be worth hearing.

Paging through the past: Allentown Public Library looks back at its beginnings

As the Allentown Public Library gets ready to celebrate its 85th year this month, it looks back to the day it first opened its doors — Nov. 25, 1912. But more than 100 years before that important moment, the idea of a library had been in the minds of the people of the city.

On Dec. 22, 1810, a meeting drew at least a few of Allentown's citizens away from their warm firesides. An item in the local newspapers alerted the town that something important was in the works:

"Members of the Allentown English Language Circulating Library are to meet at the house of Colonel George Rhoads on Saturday, December 22, at seven o' clock to elect officers and form a constitution."

English was a second language in Allentown in those days. Most people who could read, preferred to do so in German, the language of their ancestors. It was not until just before the Civil War that an English language newspaper was able to find enough subscribers to be successful in the town of 5,600. In fact, the notice of the 1810 meeting, itself, appeared in a German language newspaper.

The circulating library is shrouded in mystery. No one knows how long it lasted. It apparently had many names, the most common being "The Library Company of the Borough of Northampton." (Until 1838, Northampton was Allentown's official name.)

How many members the early library had and how many volumes it contained also is uncertain. In his 1914 history of Lehigh County, historian Charles Rhoads Roberts noted that he had a book with a printed label in the front with the following information:

"No. 59. Loaned to the Library Company of the Borough of Northampton by John Wilson."

The book had been purchased for the library on Dec. 20, 1812.

It should be understood that this was not a free public library as we have come to think of one. Those who used it predominantly were the leading figures of the community. Such "libraries" were places for social gatherings. It is quite possible that members gathered to discuss books and hear a lecture.

Sometime in the early 19th century, the Library Company of the Borough of Northampton disbanded and its books were given back to the various members.

However, at least some people in Allentown did not want to see the idea of a library die. It was brought up again around 1848. That year, the Fratres Literarium, or Brothers of Literature, was formed. Like the first group, this was a private organization or society of professional men, scholars and clergy. The impetus for the group came from Professor Robert C. Chandler of the Allentown Academy.

The society's library actually was housed at the academy. In 1866, the Fratres Literarium received an official charter from the state legislature.

When the school ceased to exist around 1869, the books were transfered to Schreiber Brothers store at 10 E. Hamilton St. There they remained under the supervision of the Fratres Literarium's librarian Tobias Kessler. Neither the size of this library nor the number of its members is known. Sometime in the early 1870s, the Fratres Literarium ceased to exist.

Its replacement, which also inherited the library, was the grandly titled Academy of Natural Science, Art and Literature. The group's founder was Fritz Warner, a local taxidermist. Apparently, the focal point of this new academy was a museum that contained a number of examples of Warner's work. The library was presided over by Eli J. Saeger, member of a well-known family.

During the post Civil War era, many women got involved a variety of social clubs and charitable causes. The strongest supporter of the library movement in Allentown was Mary Lewis, wife of Samuel B. Lewis, one of the city's leading iron makers. Their son, Fred Lewis, grew up to serve three terms as the city's mayor.

As a strong believer in education for men and women. Mary Lewis made the library her cause. She began by hosting an unusual fundraiser. On Dec. 31, 1874, what the newspapers called "a combination game supper and old folks tea party" was held at the academy's rooms at 8th and Walnut streets. The charge for the meal was 50 cents.

Taxidermist Warner had just returned from the West after a very successful trip. He brought with him a large supply of buffalo, deer and bear meat, as well as prairie chicken. This was the fundraiser's bill of fare. (Exactly how this meat was kept fresh was not explained, but possibly it was heavily salted.)

Along with planning the event, Lewis organized the woman in the kitchen. Most of them were the wives of community leaders. A Colonial theme was encouraged. The woman who waited on the tables were dressed in 18th-century garb.

"The academy was visited by hosts of people, some of whom came to enjoy the rich feast the lady friends of the library had prepared, and perhaps more, to participate in the "hop" which took place immediately after the supper, " reported The Allentown Daily Chronicle. "The sociable party was beyond all question the selectest affair of the kind that has been given in Allentown this year."

Mary Lewis had the foresight to get the services of the popular Eureka Orchestra for the "hop." Professor Fred Perkins, the orchestra's leader had just finished a new arrangement of George Walker's favorite "Try Me" polka. "This sprightly piece of music, though but recently published, " noted The Chronicle, "has already gone into its second edition, the first having been exhausted in a few weeks after its appearance."

The music played on well into the New Year of 1875 and everyone agreed that the library had many firm friends. But like other Allentown library ventures, the Academy faded as Warner's taxidermy business took a nose dive in the depression that followed the Panic of 1873.

The group disbanded , its library turned over to the Odd Fellows fraternal order, whose headquarters was in the old Breinig and Bachman building at the southeast corner of 6th and Hamilton streets. The books were still there on Oct. 13, 1893, when one of the worst fires in the city's history burned them to ashes. The only books known to survive were checked out to Mary Lewis.

Even before the fire, there was a growing interest in the creation of a real public library. And as she had been in 1874, the driving force behind this was Lewis. In 1890, she organized the Womans League whose goal was toestablish of a public library.

Working toward this goal, she organized a Kirmess, a five-day-long fair. The event began on May 26, 1891, with a children's cantata, a singing event arranged by Lizz Wagner, which raised $300. The fair, which continued over the next four days, had 12 booths, each representing a month of the year. A dance was held each night. At the end of June, the Womans League had a Kirmass Ball. The hit of the social season, it raised $1,200 for the public library.

The Womans League used the money they raised to purchase books and, by 1893, had them in place in the Oratorio Society Building along South 7th Street. The league, which changed its name to the Woman's Literary Society, was given the rooms rent-free. The society charge a $3 fee for membership. Their collection of books, which remained in the Oratorio Society building for 20 years, was the beginning of the Allentown Public Library's first collection.

A new century had dawned before the movement for a public library took its next step. It began in 1907 with the establishment of a club by the unmarried female employees of the then 10-year-old Hess Brothers department store. The club, known as M.U.M. Circle (Members Until Married), was looking for a cause to support.

Then one fortunate day, the M.U.M.'s driving spirit, Blanche Phifer, met with Lewis, outlined the importance of a public library. It was an ideal cause for M.U.M to follow up on, Phifer decided.

Phifer quickly persuaded her group to support the library. The first fund-raising event was a car raffle that raised $1,056. It was followed by the creation of a role of honor from which subscriptions of $1 to $1,000 were taken. It was not long before the fund swelled to $14,575.

M.U.M.'s next step was purchasing a building at 914 Hamilton St. The organization put $5,000 down on a $10,000 mortgage and began remodeling the building with plumbing, heating, and electrical work. Sometime during this period, Phifer married and became Blanche Phifer Travena. And, sadly, before the building's renovations were completed, she died. No cause was given for her death in the newspapers.

It was the Allentown Chamber of Commerce that put the library's fundraising efforts over the top. Caught up in the spirit of the 100th anniversary celebration of Lehigh County in 1912, the chamber of commerce, at the urging of Flag Day founder Joe Hart, began a campaign in the business community to pay off the rest of the library's mortgage. They not only paid off the debt but were able to make a large contribution of $12,000. The chamber also promised to establish permanent quarters in a room in the library building.

On the night of Nov. 25, 1912, a large crowd flocked to the library. They listened to speeches and heard music. Then, came the moment that seemed to cement the past with the present. Lewis came forward and gave Dr. George T. Ettinger, president of the Allentown Public Library Association, the two books she had signed out of the library during the fire, as well as the 1866 charter of the Fratres Literarium.

One hundred and two years after it all began in 1810, Allentown finally had a public library.